Skype up and running again

Skype is up and fully operational again after a software bug left many users unable to log on for two days. Skype Ltd, a division of online auction company eBay Inc, said it would explain what caused the problem in more detail.

Skype a computer program, which allows it users to make long-distance phone calls via the Internet, is used by an estimated 220 million people worldwide.

The worldwide outage began Thursday. Users said they could not log on and make phone calls or send instant messages. Skype said the issue was a problem with its software.

Skype, founded by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, uses peer-to-peer technology to connect phone calls, instant messages and videos between its users. It runs on a variety of operating systems, including Windows, Mac OS X, PocketPC and Linux.

Besides making computer-to-computer calls, Skype also connects mobile phones and traditional landlines telephones.

The source of the problems in more detail, on Thursday, 16th August 2007, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption. The disruption was triggered by a massive restart of our users' computers across the globe within a very short time frame as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.

The high number of restarts affected Skype's network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact.